Effect of Various Enzymes on Degradation of Fruits

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y_anshul
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Effect of Various Enzymes on Degradation of Fruits

Post by y_anshul »

I'm doing an experiment where I test different enzymes to see which ones are the most efficient at reducing fruit waste and at which concentrations they work best. It's similar to this experiment I found: http://csef.usc.edu/History/2006/Projects/J0413.pdf, but I'm going to be testing more types of enzymes. I know pectinase is efficient as it breaks down plant cell walls, but which other enzymes could I test for noticeable results? Also how can I convert the fruit waste to energy?
drstein2022
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Re: Effect of Various Enzymes on Degradation of Fruits

Post by drstein2022 »

Hi there!

Great questions, and very interesting experiment. So you're asking two different broad scale questions: 1) how to convert the fruit waste to energy, and 2) which enzymes to include. I'd love to get a better sense for what you have so far for your experiment, because these two questions are pretty major and asking two major questions like this will likely obscure the outcomes of your experiment. Can you give more information?

Thanks and have a great day!
Rebekah
kstromberg
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Re: Effect of Various Enzymes on Degradation of Fruits

Post by kstromberg »

Hello, the first thing to think of is what you're trying to break down with each enzyme (carbohydrates, proteins, fats, etc). As you said, pectinase breaks down plant cell walls. Other digestive enzymes include cellulase, amylase, lipase, and invertase. Here is a link to a resource about digestive enzymes: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/ ... upplements

A few things to think about are what type of enzymes will be the best for digesting fruit and how you are going to obtain these. Many of these enzymes are commercial available as digestive enzymes, but are a mix.

I hope this is enough to get you started.
y_anshul
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Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2022 9:12 pm
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Re: Effect of Various Enzymes on Degradation of Fruits

Post by y_anshul »

Hi,

Thank you for your replies! I just saw these and I've made a few updates since I posted my original message. I did some research and decided pectinase, cellulase, and lipase would be the best enzymes to test for this experiment, and I'll probably try amylase and invertase now as well. So far, I haven't started any experimentation but I have most of my experiment planned, with a list of my variables, my procedure, and a list of all the equipment and enzymes I need to buy. The reason I was interested in how to convert the fruit waste into energy is because the other similar project I linked mentioned it as well. My goal would be to use my results to develop a method for converting fruit waste into an energy source but I don't know how exactly I can't do this.
kstromberg
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Re: Effect of Various Enzymes on Degradation of Fruits

Post by kstromberg »

Hello,

This seems like a great start to your project! Capturing the energy from the food waste is complex. I found this article about how this is done on a large scale:
https://theconversation.com/heres-how-f ... rgy-176352

I am not sure how this could be done in a quantitative way for this project since it is such a complex process.
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